Romanticism is often considered the moment when art of the highest ambitions first went beyond, and perhaps deliberately challenged, the common understandings of the parent culture. With this in mind, art historian T. J. Clark examines the reactions of the great critic William Hazlitt to the art of his contemporaries Joseph Mallord William Turner and William Blake. Hazlitt famously described Turner’s paintings as “pictures of nothing, and very like,” and ruefully remarked to a friend, on reading Blake’s poems, that Blake “attempts impossibles.” To what was Hazlitt responding? Should his verdicts be taken seriously? Followed by a reception.



This lecture coincides with the symposium on Romanticism titled “The Romantic Eye, 1760–1860 and Beyond.”



Established to honor the memory of Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Yale University Art Gallery director from 1957 to 1971, the annual Ritchie Lectures, which are jointly sponsored by the Yale Center for British Art and the Gallery, bring to the University distinguished members of the international visual arts community. These lectures are free and open to the public, honoring Ritchie’s belief that the art museum serves as a gathering place for all members of the community.